Ube Tikoy

Adding everyone’s favourite purple ingredient to this Chinese rice cake. Ube Tikoy is a type of Filipino-Chinese rice steamed rice cake called Tikoy prepared with ube flavour and macapuno strips.

Tikoy was a staple for us growing up, during Chinese New Year back in the Philippines it was a custom for many Filipino-Chinese people to give tikoy to their friends and family, we are fortunate enough to be recipients of this all the time. During those days there are only two varieties, one coloured white and one that is a bit brownish, they do taste similar and I guess the colour is just because of the sugar used.

Tikoy was widely believed that Chua Chiu Hong, a migrant from Mainland China, was the one responsible popularising it in the Philippines. In 1912, he established a simple stall in Ongpin called Eng Bee Tin and sold food items like hopia, mooncake, and tikoy to cater for the Chinese immigrants in the Philippines.   The Filipinos eventually learned to eat them and it became an instant favourite. The name tikoy comes from the Hokkien dialect “ti-ke” which translates to “sweet pastry”

I am not sure when the different flavours was introduced but definitely after I had left the Philippines in the early 2000’s. I never encountered flavoured tikoy when I was there, so I am assuming that it was created quite recently. Today there are a variety of flavours like ube, pandan, corn, cheese, strawberry, muscovado, chorizo and red beans to name some. Now if you are like me, far from any Eng Bee Tin products then your best next option is to create one at home and that’s what we did today, making our own ube flavoured tikoy but this Ang Sarap version has a twist, we added macapuno strips on it.

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Ube Tikoy

  • Author: Raymund
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
  • Category: Snack
  • Cuisine: Filipino

Description

Ube Tikoy is a type of Filipino-Chinese rice steamed rice cake called Tikoy prepared with ube flavour and macapuno strips.


Ingredients

Units Scale

Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Method)

  • 4 packed cups glutinous rice
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar (you can adjust to your liking)
  • 1/2 cup sweetened macapuno
  • 1 cup water + extra for soaking
  • 3 tsp ube flavouring

Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Flour Method)

Fried Tikoy

  • 1/2 cake tikoy / nian gao, sliced in 1 cm thick cuts
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • oil

Instructions

Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Method)

  1. In a bowl add rice and enough water to cover the rice. Soak for 24 hours.
  2. Drain rice thoroughly, leave it in a sieve for a couple of minutes.
  3. Place rice and sugar in a heavy-duty blender or food processor then blend. Add 1 cup of water gradually and process until it resembles a pancake batter.
  4. Add the flavouring and macapuno mix well until colour is evenly distributed
  5. Place in a glad wrap lined container the pour over the batter, steam for 1 hour.
  6. Remove from steamer then let it cool, once cooled down refrigerate overnight.
  7. Remove from the container then cook as desired.

Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Flour Method)

  1. In a large bowl combine all Tikoy (Glutinous Rice Flour Method) Ingredients, mix it well until free of lumps.
  2. Add the flavouring and macapuno mix well until colour is evenly distributed
  3. Place in a glad wrap lined container the pour over the batter, steam for 1 hour.
  4. Remove from steamer then let it cool, once cooled down refrigerate overnight.
  5. Remove from the container then cook as desired.

Fried Tikoy

  1. Place pan in medium low heat then add small amount of oil for pan frying,
  2. Dip a slice of tikoy in the beaten egg mixture then pan fry each piece, once golden brown on one side turn it over, when cooked remove from pan then place on a paper towel lined plate.
  3. Do the same with the rest of the slices then serve

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4 Responses

  1. That ube colour is just so sexy!

  2. Neil says:

    I second the comment above Raymond from Angiesrecipes. Wow that colour looks amazing!

  3. Just beautiful, Raymond — the texture looks like satin!

  4. Michelle says:

    Looks so vibrant with the purple! Yum, love pan-fried nian gao!

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